$re = '/(([012][0-9])|(3[01]))\/([0]{0,1}[1-9]|1[012])\/\d{4} ([01][0-9]|[2][0-3]):([01345][0-9])/';
$str = '30/09/1979 12:59';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php